The Family Weight Management Study (FamWtStudy) (1R18-DK075981) is designed to evaluate the effects of a 12-month, family-based intervention designed to improve BMI z-scores and CVD risk factors in children ages 7-12 years living in a community with a high minority representation, who have a BMI z-score >85th percentile. The families recruited will be randomized to either the Control or Experimental Intervention group. The Control Intervention group will receive a booklet with targets for healthy eating behaviors, a handout on how to increase physical activity, and quarterly visits that will include a brief review of lifestyle recommendations. The Experimental Intervention group will receive weekly sessions for 3 months that include a core diet and physical activity curriculum followed by monthly post-core sessions for 9 months promoting adherence to the curriculum. Targeted diet strategies in the core curriculum include increasing highly pigmented fruit and vegetable, and fish intake;substituting non-fat and low-fat for full-fat milk and dairy products;and reducing meat, fried food and savory snack intakes. During the one-year intervention period social support and tailored individualized counseling will be provided to the families, augmented with telephone calls and home visits addressing barriers to adherence. The goal of this ancillary study application is to expand the scope of the FamWtStudy to include 1) measures of diet quality biomarkers in child-mother/female guardian pairs, 2) measures of CVD risk factors in children and mothers/female guardians, and 3) assessment of associations within child-mother/female guardian pairs for diet quality biomarkers and CVD risk factors pre-intervention and post-intervention change. Each biomarker for diet quality was chosen because it is an indicator of a different component of the diet targeted by the parent study and can provide an indication of adherence - red blood cell (RBC) 18:3n-3, 20:4n-6, 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 for vegetable oil, meat and fish;plasma carotenoids and phylloquinone for highly pigmented fruits and vegetables;RBC 15:0 for full-fat milk and dairy products;and RBC trans fatty acids and plasma dihydrophylloquinone for fried food and savory snacks. Measuring the CVD risk factors (total, HDL and LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, hsCRP, glucose and insulin concentrations, blood pressure and waist circumference) in the children and mothers/female guardians, will allow for an assessment of 'spill-over'effect within families and concordance within child-mother/female guardian pairs. Regardless of the outcomes, the results will provide critical data with which to design subsequent interventions in minority communities to increase the impact of family-based obesity prevention programs and public health importance because the data will provide information in an area that continues to challenge current efforts to stem the tide of childhood obesity in a high-risk subgroup and an area that threatens to overwhelm our healthcare system. The response is time-sensitive because the FamWtStudy intervention started in August, 2009 and it is critical to have resources to collect, process, archive, transfer and analyze plasma and RBC samples. Public Health Relevance: The results of the proposed work will be of public health importance because they will provide objective measures for the effectiveness of a family-based program designed to prevent excess weight gain in high-risk children and potential 'spill-over'effects in the mothers/female guardians of the children. The objective measures will include indicators of diet quality and cardiovascular disease risk factors in the children and their mothers/female guardians, as well as the relationship of change within children and mothers/female guardian pairs. Developing and evaluating strategies to prevent excess weight gain is critical to support current efforts to stem the tide of childhood obesity in the U.S., a public health problem that threatens to overwhelm our healthcare system.

Public Health Relevance

The results of the proposed work will be of public health importance because they will provide objective measures for the effectiveness of a family-based program designed to prevent excess weight gain in high-risk children and potential 'spill-over'effects in the mothers/female guardians of the children. The objective measures will include indicators of diet quality and cardiovascular disease risk factors in the children and their mothers/female guardians, as well as the relationship of change within children and mothers/female guardian pairs. Developing and evaluating strategies to prevent excess weight gain is critical to support current efforts to stem the tide of childhood obesity in the U.S., a public health problem that threatens to overwhelm our healthcare system. (End of Abstract)